March / April 2010

2010.  The 10th anniversary of To Err Is Human, the publication that stunned us all with the news that health care itself is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, purportedly killing more people than breast cancer and car accidents.

2010. A year when patient safety objectives are clear; when stakeholders have identified their goals and opportunities, when well-informed research guides collaborative efforts to set and achieve universally accepted standards for care delivery; when all national, and even international, goals for patient safety and clinical quality have been defined and achieved; or something else entirely?

2010.  A banner year of celebration for the patient safety movement, or a time to recognize that we are stuck in a world of conundrums, intricate and difficult problems with only conjectural answers?

2010.  Two divergent approaches to enhanced patient safety reflecting an interest in redefining how personal behaviors — on the part of health care providers and patients — impact the delivery of care and evaluating whether implementation of technology can enhance performance in health care as it has in other disciplines. Interactions between technology and human performance create areas of investigation that integrate non-traditional health care fields, such as cognitive psychology and human factors research, with more traditional quantitative and qualitative techniques. Tension exists between the call for evidence-based practice and medical decision-making based on comparative effectiveness research and the widespread recognition that what we don’t know in these areas may be even greater than what we do know. Decision-making in the face of uncertainty is daunting, especially when lives are at stake. Waiting for certainty seems wrong when lives are at stake.

2010. The deafening clamor of divergent political interests continues to direct and define health care in ways many of us would not have considered in the past. The very definitions of health, care, and health care seem unstable in the current environment. The role of government evolves and the impact of that evolution remains unknown.

2010. ABQAURP introduces this column, intended to examine and define Quality Conundrums in the worlds of patient safety, health care quality, and medical error reduction. The title is a word play; not only must we ask the right questions to get the best answers (quality questions), but we must discuss the questions we all have about measuring quality, and the interplay between health care quality and safety (questions about quality).

The intent of this column is to create dialogue, with the thought that our collective wisdom is greater than any individual contribution. We will use this column as a forum to search for questions and answers, from established experts and from ourselves. Readers are encouraged to send thoughts, problems, and resources; those contributions will form the backbone of future work. With luck and hard work, perhaps we can facilitate the development of a health care system that is patient-centered, safe, effective, timely, efficient, and equitable, as suggested by the IOM in Crossing the Quality Chasm. Or perhaps, we’ll come up with something else entirely…

Please send inquiries and comments to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , please use Quality Column in the subject line.
We look forward to your participation in this new column. 

Congratulations to Dr. Nick Paslidis who was recently elected as Vice Chairman of ABQAURP’s Board of Directors.

The ABQAURP Board of Directors welcomes Mary Forkin, RN, BSN, CHCQM, long-time Diplomate, who has recently been appointed to the Board.

ABQAURP Congratulates Dr. Anil B. Gopinath, Diplomate, on his recent appointment as Chief Medical Officer of the Provena United Samaritans Medical Center in Danville, IL. Dr. Gopinath is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and is pursuing his master’s degree in Medical Management at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

HCQM Certification Exam

We are now accepting applications for the 2010 International Health Care Quality and Management (HCQM) Board Examination Window. Testing will be from September 15 to November 15, 2010.

ABQAURP is the only Health Care Quality and Management (HCQM) organization with an examination developed, administered, and evaluated through the National Board of Medical Examiners' (NBME) testing expertise. ABQAURP and the NBME collaborate on the planning, development, analysis, and scoring of the certification examination. The NBME's involvement in the certification process reflects ABQAURP's dedication to establishing Health Care Quality and Management as a specialty with definable standards upheld by knowledgeable experts.

Professionals who have achieved certification in Health Care Quality and Management (HCQM) are deeply committed to patient safety, health care quality, and effective care. Those certified in HCQM have demonstrated superior skills in their ability to critically evaluate the literature, identify evidence-based best practices, and make a recommendation that balances appropriateness of services with cost and quality. HCQM certification addresses the need for effectiveness, efficiency, equity, safety, and timeliness.

ABQAURP welcomes applications for joint sponsorship of educational activities for continuing education credit. ABQAURP accredits a variety of activities, including:

ABQAURP is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to sponsor continuing medical education for physicians and is also accredited by the Florida Board of Nursing to sponsor nursing contact hours. As an accredited provider, ABQAURP is here to work with each joint sponsor organization to ensure the accreditation process runs as smoothly as possible. Benefits of working with ABQAURP include: one-on-one assistance, on-site assistance, contact for speakers and commercial supporters, evaluation compilation, one-time mailing list to drive attendance, website placement, and advertising in Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare magazine.

ABQAURP believes that ongoing continuing education in new research, identified problem areas in clinical practice, and areas of interest in the quality assurance, utilization review, risk management, and managed care fields is a worthy endeavor to pursue. Participants improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of health care delivered to the patients to improve the overall clinical outcome. Plus, each activity encourages participants to put into practice knowledge learned and assess the impact. Innovative courses provide important updates and practical tools for all health care professionals. These activities ensure that participating health care professionals receive up-to-date information on the ever-changing health care environment.